Favor



J. H. WOOLHlSER.

FAVOR.

l APPLICATION FILED )ULY19. |918. m3773415 f Patented May 10,1921.

z sHEETs-sHEET 2. @Q97 W5; J

i `stares @ENKEL FAVOR.

Application led July 19, 1918.

To all 'whom t may concern:

Be it known that LYJAY H. WooLHisnR, a citizen of the United States, anda resident of Elmhurst, county of Queens, city and State of New York,have invented new and useful improvements in Favors, of which thefollowing is a specification.r

rlhis invention relates to socalled snapping favors and themethod Lofmaking the same.

These devices consist primarily of a roll of fancy paper containing apaper cap or similar favor or souvenir, and a small quantity ofexplosive arranged to be ignited upon pulling the ends of the roll ofpaper apart. As heretofore manufactured, the exploding device of thesnapper consisted of two overlapped strips of cloth or paper, theoverlapped ends of which were provided with a mixture of a fulminatingcompound, a suitable adhesive and sandor other abrasive, the ends of thestrips being arranged so that when -the ends of the snapper were pulledapart the coated ends will be drawn over each other with a resultingexplosion.

These devices, while more or less satisfactory in use, presented seriousdiiiiculties in manufacture by reason of the highly explosive nature ofthe material used which rendered the handling of large batches of it,particularly Vwhen mixing it with the sand, extremely hazardous, andaccidents in the making of the snappers, particularly in spreading ofthe explosive upon the paper strips, were quite frequent.

rlhe primary object of my invention is to provide an improved snapperwhich may be manufactured cheaply in large quantities and without thedanger heretofore unavoidable.

A further object of the invention is to provide a snapper in which asmall quantity of explosive compound, which is more or less expensive,will produce a detonation of the same intensity and with greatercertainty of ring whenever the ends of the snapper are pulled. y

A further object of the invention is to provide a method of making thesnappers whereby the preparation ofthe paper strips and the applicationthereto of the explosive mixture and sand will be carried out in largenumbers of strips at a time, confining the yhandling of the individualsnappers to the mere assembling, thereby greatly reducing themanufacturing cost,

Specification of Letters Patent.

Fatented May it), i921..

Serial No. 245,639.

Further objects of the invention will appear from the followingdescription, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, whereinl have illustrated two different forms of my improved snapper and thedifferent steps in its manufacture.

in said drawings,

Figures 1,2 and indicate three successive steps in the preparation ofthe paper strips of which the snapping devices are made;

Fig. l is a cross sectional view on an enn `modified mode of procedure;

Fig. 9 is a plan view` showing the cardboard strip on the favor asemployed in this modified form;

Fig. 10 is a perspective view showing the method of assembling the paperstrip in the pasteboard core; and

F ig. 1l is a detail view showing the relative positions of theexplosivecompound and the sand after the strip is assembled in place.

According to my improved method of manufacture, l take a strip of toughpaper about three and one-half or four inches in length, as indicated inllT ig. l, and slit it transversely of its length from one edge almostte the other, making a series' of individual tongues 2 about one-eighthto a quarter of an inch in width, connected'along one end by the narrowuncut margin 3 of the paper web. The slitting of the paper may beeconomically accomplished by an ordinary paper shearing machine.adjusted yto cut not quite across the width of the web. After the paperis slit, l apply along the edge of the web forming the free ends of thestrip a line of glue into which is sprinkled while still soft, a layerof sand, as indicated at 4, forming a striking surface similar to thatapplied to match boxes for ordinary matches.

lf the paper is 'in a continuous web the sand and glue may be applied bya sanding machine such as used in the manufacture of match boxes. If themethod is carried out largely by hand, the paper web will rst be cut insheets of a length convenient to handle, say four or five inches long,and the glue and sand can then be applied with a brush and sprinkler.

After the sand is applied, the explosive compound or dope which consistspreferably of a mixture of fulminate of silver and flour paste, isapplied to the edge of the slit web in a line adjacent the sandedsurface, as shown at 5 in Fig. 3. This mixture is very easily explodedduring the mixing and while applying to the paper strips. It istherefore essential thaty it be handled by skilled labor. i

By my improved method of manufacture the fulminate is mixed with thepaste, and While sufficiently soft to flow readily the operator takes asmall trough or funnel 6, preferably of stiff paper, and scoops upenough of the material for a sheet of the paper web and then draws thefunnel along over the web just out of contact with its surface rapidlyenough for the iiow of the dope from the end ofthe funnel to leave thedesired size streak on the paper. This operation occupies but a fewmoments for each sheet, which will be long enough for several hundredindividual paper strips or tongues. After the paste hardens thevmaterialis no longer so Vexplosive and the individual tongues may be torn apartand assembled without danger even by comparatively unskilled labor.

To complete the snapper two of the individual tongues will be detachedfrom the web by breaking apart the glue and dried dope at the free endand tearing the paper along the margin 3, and the .two strips will thenbe overlapped in the relative positions shown in Fig. 4, that is, withtheir prepared faces together and sufficiently overlapped for theparticle 7 of compound and the attached bit of sand 8 of the left handstrip to lie to the right of the sand and compound of the right strip,so that when the strips are pulled apart the bit of compound on onestrip will be dragged over the sand on the other and simultaneously thebit of compound on the second strip will be drawn over the sand 0f thelirst, causing a simultaneous explosion of both. The ends of the stripsmay be held together in overlapped `relation in various ways.

My preferred method as disclosed in the drawings consists in wrappingthe overlapped ends with several turns of light paper, the free end ofthe wrapping paper being glued to the underlying turn of the otherstrip.

favors usually consist of a short cylinder of cardboard, as indicated at9, about two and one half or three inches long, in which is stuffed theconfection, souvenir, etc. The assembled paper strips are held againstone wall of the cylinder with the free ends projecting beyond the endsof the cylinder and the two are then wrapped with several turns of fancypaper, as indicated at l0, the fancy paper being slightly greater` inwidth and length than the assembled strips so as toV conceal the endsofthe strips. The end of the fancy paper' is then bunched' together eitherby twisting or binding, as indicated at 11,

with the ends of paper strips held in the bunched end so that when theends are grasped to be pulled apart the Vends of the two paper stripswill be gripped suiiiciently for their treated endsY to be drawn pasteach other, thereby exploding the dope My improved favor presents'several advantages over those previously used. In the first place, itis much more certain of operation, due to the fact that when the sand ismixed directly with the dope the particles of sand which will projectabove the dope mixed with the binder may prevent suiiicient scratchingof the explosive compound to y detonate it, while with my improvedsnapper the free dope unmixed with the sand will invariably be drawnacross the sand of the In the manufacture of the vold style favors thereis also danger of exploding the batch of dope when mixing the sand withit, due to the more explosive condition of the dope and the liability ofcreating suiiicient friction to ignite it by the mixing in of the sand.Also, it would not be Safe to apply the sand mixed with the dope to theedge of a web or sheet of previously cut tongues for the reason that thebreaking apart of the tongues would be likely to cause an explosion ofthe mixed sand and dope so that the individual narrow strips had to beseparately dipped or coated with the mix ture.

In my improved snapper the dope7 does not come in Contact withk the sanduntil it has exploded, and the breaking apart 0f the separate tonguesafter the dope is dried will not cause an explosion because there is noabrasive material mixed with it.

I also use less. dope in my'improved snapper than in the old style, forthe reason that it is necessary to have the stripe of sand of sufficientwidth to insure the explosion of the compound when drawn over it. Whenthe sand is mixed'with the dope the width of the strip of do e iscoextensive with that of the sand.V y applying the dope and sandseparately, the sand may be of any desired width to yinsure explosionbefore the particle of dope willvbe drawn completely across its 'entireWidth, but the particle of dope may be no larger than necessary to givethe desired sound.

In Figs. 7 to 11, inclusive, I have illustrated a modified form` of myimproved snapper in which the process of manufacture is simplified andalso the cost of materials is lessened. T0 produce the snapper hereshown I proceed to first cut the paper web in the same manner asheretofore as indicated in Fig. 7 into a series of tongues 2 joinedalong one edge by an uncut narrow margin 3 of the web. I do not,however, apply sand to the ends of the tongues, but apply the stripe ofdope7 5 in the manner heretofore described, along the cut edge of theweb, so that each tongue when separated from the web will be providedwith a small particle of the dope The sand for igniting the dope isapplied in a larger spot 15 to the surface of the sheet of pasteboard 9out of which the body of the favor is made, the sand being preferablyalong the side of the stripe of adhesive 16 by means of which thepasteboard is secured in roll form. The sand may be easily applied bydaubing a spot of glue on the face of the pastboard and dusting it withsand.

After the glue is dried, one of the tongues 2 separated from the web andcarrying the dried particle of d0pe, will be led over the spot of sandwith the clean end of the tongue projecting beyond the margin of thesheet 9 and the end carrying the dope beyond the spot of sand, asillustrated in Fig. 1l. With the tongue so held the strip 9, is rolledinto tubular form, as shown in Fig. 10 and the glued margin 16 attachedto the adjacent face of the sheet, so that the strip will be held inplace between the lapped ends of the roll. 'Ihe gift or souvenir willthen be placed in the roll in the usual manner and the roll covered withthe usual fancy paper covering 10 as indicated in broken lines, whichwill be completed in the manner heretofore described.

In this form of snapper only one tongue is used and the step ofattaching the tongues together is avoided, but the snapper produced isnot so certain in its action as the first described form, for the reasonthat the paper at the end of the tube opposite the location of thefiring strip may be pulled off before the strip is drawn across thesand, while in the preferred construction the free ends of the lappedstrip are positively gripped and the ring will take place however thepaper may tear.

I claim:

l. The method of making firing strips for articles of the classdescribed which consists in slitting a web of paper transversely intostrips and then applying to the paper while the strips are stillpositioned as in the original web a stripe of abrasive material and astripe of explosive material separated from the abrasive material, thestripes extending transversely of the strips and longitudinally of theweb.

2. The method of making firing strips for articles of the classdescribed which consists in slitting a web of paper transversely intostrips extending almost the width of the paper and leaving an unslitmargin of the web connecting the strips at one end, applying to theother end separate stripes of abrasive material and explosive material,re-

spectively, the stripes extending transversely of the strips andlongitudinally of the web, and thereafter separating the strips one fromthe other.

3. The method of making firing strips for articles of the classdescribed which consists in transversely slitting a web of paper atclosely spaced intervals to divide the web into narrow tongues heldtogether along one edge of the web, applying to the slit edge of the weba stripe of sand, thereafter applying to the web a stripe of explosivecompound extending parallel to the stripe of sand but spaced therefromby moving a container from which the semi-liquid explosive compound isflowing longitudinally of the web, then allowing said explosive compoundto dry and thereafter separating the individual narrow strips from eachother.

Signed at Elmhurst in the county of Queens and State of New York this3rd day of June, 1918.

JAY II. WOOLIIISER.

